Category Archives: Tourism Marketing

Online Travel Agents (OTAs) like Booking.com, Expedia, Airbnb, Viator and Get Your Guide have become an important part of the tourism distribution landscape. They provide visibility, reach new audiences, and can help fill beds, tours, and experiences that might otherwise go unsold.

But we often hear from tourism businesses that "the OTA can handle the customer relationship."

While OTAs are great at helping guests find and book your business, relying on them to manage the entire customer relationship means you're giving away one of your most valuable assets: your customer data.

Why Being Dependent on OTAs is Costly

When a guest books through an OTA, the platform manages much of the relationship. They control the booking journey, the communications, and often limit the...

When many people hear the word “brand”, they immediately think of logos, colours, fonts, or maybe a slick-looking website. And while those things are important, they are only the surface layer of branding.

Your brand is not your logo.

Your brand is the feeling people associate with your business. It’s the reputation you build over time. It’s what customers say about you when you’re not in the room.

A logo is simply the visual identifier attached to that reputation.

This misunderstanding is one of the biggest marketing myths we still see, particularly in tourism and hospitality, where businesses often invest heavily in visual design but underestimate the importance of consistency, customer experience, and trust.

Brand is Built Through Experience

Think about...

We often talk about how tourism websites should be designed with one goal in mind: attract visitors from search engines (mostly Google) and convert them into bookings. While that objective remains the same, the way travellers discover and interact with tourism businesses is changing rapidly.

With AI-powered search experiences becoming increasingly common, travellers are no longer simply clicking through lists of search results. They're asking questions, receiving recommendations, comparing options, and planning itineraries directly within AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Mode/Overviews, Perplexity and more.

Given this, your website has three audiences to consider:

• Human visitors looking to book
• Traditional search engines 
• AI search tools looking to...

If your business isn't visible in AI search, then you're missing out on bookings

It sounds alarmist, but the reality is a growing number of travellers are now turning to AI tools to research and plan their trips - so if you aren't being recommended by AI platforms then you don't even get a look in for those bookings.

AI Search is no longer niche - it should form part of your overall SEO strategy. That's why we have put together an eBook all about AI Search - to help you understand what AI Search is, and how to give your business more chance of being visible to these platforms.

"In the US, 56% of travellers used AI for planning, booking or in-destination assistance for at least one trip in the past 12 months (March 2026), and it’s a fast growing trend - up from 43% in the...

There's a plot twist happening in the world of streaming, and it's one that every tourism marketer should be paying attention to.

For years, the story went like this: YouTube was where you discovered things, and Netflix was where you settled in to watch them properly. One was the scrappy free platform full of creators, the other was the premium, subscription-powered juggernaut. Two different worlds.

But that line? It's blurring fast.

Phil's Feeding a New Platform

Here's the moment that made the industry do a double-take. Somebody Feed Phil, the beloved food and travel series hosted by Phil Rosenthal (yes, the creator of Everybody Loves Raymond) has been one of Netflix's longest-running unscripted shows, clocking up eight seasons since 2018. It follows Rosenthal...

Let's face it, it's very common for marketers in tourism to always focus on marketing activity that creates new customers to fill their rooms, tours or schedules. If your marketing strategy is heavily focused on attracting new customers, you’re not alone.

But the reality is that treating past guests like “job done” is a missed opportunity because while new acquisition seems like the right focus, your past guests are often your easiest, most profitable growth channel.

Let's explore why and ways to get new bookings from previous customers.

Why This Myth Exists

There’s a natural bias toward new campaigns, new audiences, and new bookings. And with platforms like Google Ads and Meta Ads making it easier than ever to target fresh audiences, it can feel like growth equals...